Father Speaks Of Pain As Diplomats Probe Sobia Wali Death

EXCLUSIVE: TRAGIC bride Sobia Wali's death was last night being probed by diplomats in Pakistan.

TRAGIC bride Sobia Wali's death was last night being probed by diplomats in Pakistan.

The 22-year-old Scottish Muslim died after a botched abortion in the capital Lahore.

Her family had claimed she was killed by food poisoning or a virus - but yesterday they said she died after bleeding from gynaecological problems.

The Glaswegian call centre worker had recently married Usman Gulzar, 24, in secret.

She was pregnant when the couple wed.

Sources in the city's southside said there was bad feeling between the two families.

Sobia had flown out to Pakistan for her gran's funeral with her mother Safia and brothers Imran, Usman and Bilal before going to hospital.

She had a procedure in a hospital in Gujranwala but was moved to a better private unit in Lahore after she began bleeding.

The British High Commission in Lahore began their own examination yesterday after receiving a copy of the hospitals' medical reports and death certificate. Her cause of death was listed as heart attack.

Last night in Lahore, her father Mohammad said: "Can a father kill her daughter? No, no chance.

"I loved that girl. I've become useless now. I sit like a dead body now. I used to have two daughters, now just one."

Mohammad - who flew out after Sobia's death with son Rehman - said he would not have rejected Gulzar out of hand as a potential marriage suitor for Sobia.

He said: "I would have had to think about it, wouldn't say yes immediately, wouldn't even do that with relatives."

If she hadn't got pregnant she would still be alive and there is a fear that there will be repercussions."

The Record revealed earlier this week how Sobia had been afraid to tell her parents of her pregnancy and secret marriage because of the scandal the news would bring.

She died last Thursday, leaving friends at home suspicious and leading her new husband to demand a police inquiry. The family's account was at odds with that of the hospital where Sobia, understood to be four months pregnant, died.

One close friend of the Wali family in Lahore said: "Sobia's death was just an accident and the family is devastated.

"She suffered gynaecological problems and heavy bleeding and her family took her to hospital. She had complications and she was transferred to another hospital.

"They did everything they could to get her good care and there was nothing they could do."

Mohammad and son Imran were pictured yesterday kneeling by the young woman's petal-strewn grave.

Imran said: "She was taken ill. She was in the best hospital in Pakistan that money can buy.

"There were no delays, she was denied nothing and she was in the best of care.

"We are very upset and I can't think straight."

Gujranwala police inspector Imran Abbas said he knew Sobia was at the town's Najma Zia Hospital for an abortion.

Then she was taken to the Surgimed Hospital in Lahore in a serious condition.

Last night, a Foreign Office spokesman said: "The incident is being investigated by police in the UK and we are being kept informed as they proceed.